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Even mobile apps that get a quick pop when they launch often can't sustain it and die a quiet death for lack of use. Many apps, of course, aren't that great or don't offer enough to prompt most people to use them more than a few times. But for others, the problem is that app developers simply don't know how to keep bringing users back.

Kahuna, a company launching today, hopes to change that with a service that it calls a Customer Engagement Engine. Backed with a $2 million seed round from SoftTech VC and Costanoa Venture Capital as well as a bunch of angels including several current and former executives, Kahuna says its service analyzes app user behavior in real time and serves up personalized marketing messages to help raise app usage and revenue generation.

CEO and cofounder Adam Marchick, a onetime member of Facebook's "growth team," says the service combines analytics with automated push and email messaging for the first time, essentially boxing up the "growth hacking" that the likes of Facebook, , Twitter, and Dropbox have used to build their businesses fast. "We're democratizing engagement to the world," he says.

Using prebuilt campaign templates that can be customized for each company, Marchick says, messages can be changed in real time depending on the types of customers being targeted and the responses. With online retailer Karmaloop, for instance, Kahuna can notice when users are showing an interest in certain products but don't buy them, and send them messages that might prompt them to buy.

Kahuna has been testing out the service with about 20 customers since early this year, including Karmaloop, rental finder Apartment List, and mobile gift card startup Gyft. Gyft, for instance, increased revenue 17% in the first month after using Kahuna, thanks to a 240% jump in re-engaged users. On average, he says, the customers saw usage of their apps double and revenues rise 15%.

Lee Linden, head of commerce at Facebook and investor in Kahuna, says the key problem Kahuna solves is the lack of marketing savvy among app developers. "A lot of the people building apps don't have the skill set to market the app, measure the usage, and get people to re-engage with the app," he says. "They've built this turnkey product that takes care of all that. I haven't seen anyone else address this."

Whether users find this useful or annoying remains to be seen, since marketing tools often can be used to excess, as anyone who has been followed around the Internet by a retargeted ad knows.